Pronunciation games 3

Make a Word
players in groups of 2-5

You'll need: 2 sets of cards (colour-coded) per group.

1. The aim of the game is to pick two cards, one from each stack or set, and make one word according to what both of the cards say. For example, one set of cards specifies the number of syllables, from one to four, while the other set specifies which sounds you need to use. Let's say a student has picked two cards:

Card 1 "Your word contains two syllables" and Card 2 "Your word begins with a /p/". The student says party and gets a point. 

2. Another option is to test just one category of sounds or features: particular vowels, consonants, weak and strong forms, words that rhyme etc. Use lexical sets or rhymes if your students don't know phonetic symbols. You can also have a set which specifies what speech part the word is. It is important, however, to keep the stacks or sets separate and make sure the cards don't contradict each other, so that no student picks for instance "Your word begins with a consonant" and "Your word begins with a vowel". Likewise, avoid requirements that would make the possible range of answers too narrow or even impossible, such as "Your word begins with /ʒ/" and "Your word contains /h/". For the same reason, avoid making three sets of cards, as they would make things too difficult.

You can add wildcards, such as any vowel or consonant, any number of syllables, any part of speech.

3. As always, if students disagree, they can ask you for help or use dictionaries on smartphones. Make sure they don't cheat by simply going to a word-searching website (or asking Siri).

4. When there's some time left and a group has used all the cards, the students can reshuffle them and continue.

5. You can also print out and distribute lists of all the tasks and simply give students cards with numbers and letters or dice. This is perhaps less exciting as a brief look at the list will reveal all the possible options. 

As a warm-up or a follow-up you can do an example in reverse, that is write a word on the board and ask the students to make rules that could be used on cards. For instance, if you write the word consider, the students will say things like "It has three syllables", "It begins with /k/" or "It contains /d/". 

Pronunciation of "x"

To make this exercise I used toPhonetics at https://tophonetics.com.

Ex. Categorise the following words depending on the pronunciation of the letter "x".

xenophobia, exhume, exalt, exit, xenon, examination, expect, example, xylophone, lexical, exhilarate, maximum, exonerate, syntax, Xena, coccyx, Xerox

1. /ks/  2. /gz/  3. /z/



KEY
1. /ks/ coccyx, exhume, exit, expect, lexical, maximum, syntax, Xerox (second "x")
2. /gz/ exalt, examination, example, exhilarate, exonerate
3. /z/ Xena, xenon, xenophobia, Xerox (first "x"), xylophone

Pronunciation games 2

Word Hunt 2-5 players (or more)

You'll need: sets of cards with questions or challenges (e.g. 15 cards for each group), a list of words for each group (e.g. 30 words)

1. The aim of the game is to pick a card and find the right words on the list. For example, the list contains the following words:

about, away, acorn, abacus, April, apricot, armour, attention

Card 1 says: "Find 3 words which begin with the schwa /ə/ sound". The student should select "about", "away" and "attention".

Card 2 says: "Find 3 words which consist of 3 syllables". The student should select "abacus", "apricot" and "attention".

Card 3 says: "Find 1 word which begins with the /ɑː/ sound". The student should select "armour".

Of course, if your students do not know IPA, use example words that illustrate the sounds tested.

2. Remind the students that some of the words can be used more than once; the students should not write on the list or cross out words.

3. Your cards can ask about many things: spelling and pronunciation, silent letters, minimal pairs, the number of syllables, word stress, words that rhyme etc.

4. A student who has answered a question correctly gets a point. If other players have doubts, they can ask you for help. Alternatively, you can allow them to use dictionaries or smartphones.

The cards can also ask about the meaning of words. For instance, a card says: "Fill in the gap in this sentence. 'He was a knight in shining ___.'". The answer is "armour".

This game is also an idea for a test: a list of words followed by a set of questions concerning their pronunciation. Needless to say, a written pronunciation test is similar to an exam for students of English attending a Linguistics class, so you need to decide if your students really need this form of testing.

Pronunciation of the "-ed" suffix

In May 2019 I wrote about the "-(e)s" suffix in plural nouns, the 3rd person singular form in the Present Simple tense as well as the "-'s" or "-s'" in so-called Saxon Genitive. The rules concerning the pronunciation of the "-ed" suffix of the Past Simple and Past Participle of regular verbs are quite similar: the suffix is voiceless after a voiceless sound, voiced after a voiced one and an additional vowel appears when the consonant is similar to the one in the suffix.

1. After a voiceless consonant "-ed" is pronounced /t/, e.g. walked /wɔːkt/, passed /pɑːst/.
2. After a voiced consonant, semi-vowel, vowel or diphthong "-ed" is pronounced /d/, e.g. bored /bɔːd/, played /pleɪd/.
3. After /t/ or /d/ "-ed" is pronounced /ɪd/ (some sources say it is /əd/), e.g. waited /'weɪtɪd/, faded /'feɪdɪd/.

The error that is the most typical of Polish learners of English is devoicing, namely pronouncing final /d/ as /t/ and /ɪd/ as /ɛt/, /ɛ/ being a Polish vowel represented by the letter "e".

Before a pause /d/ is actually devoiced but not the same as /t/. The details will be explained in a separate post.

Ex. Put the following verb forms in categories depending on the pronunciation of the "-ed" suffix.

baked, wasted, leaked, amazed, melted, smirked, highlighted, tired, greeted, marked, hated, expired, scoffed, grazed, camped, smiled, raised, jumped, booked, helped, watched, skied, surveyed, regretted, considered, added, missed, fainted

1. /t/   2. /d/   3. /ɪd/



KEY
1. /t/ baked, leaked, smirked, marked, scoffed, camped, jumped, booked, helped, watched, missed
2. /d/ amazed, tired, expired, grazed, smiled, raised, skied, surveyed, considered
3. /ɪd/ wasted, melted, highlighted, greeted, hated, regretted, added, fainted